S47 Power Rankings

 Richard Castle - contributing reporter

Time to update those power rankings in Cobbfather. Let's see who has moved up, down, and all around. We have a new #1, with New York climbing 3 to the top spot. The top 5 are clear, New York, Colorado Springs, Oklahoma City, Columbus, and Scranton; in that order. The (clearly) Canadians and Massacres both fall 8 spots. That bullpen for Vancouver can't be expected to do everything themselves! Working their way out of the pit with their new promoted S44 #1 Overall pick Rip Bromberg leading the way are the Yinzers climbing 6 to the #11 ranking. But Cincy earns the award for biggest climb since the offseason, up 8 spots to #18 overall. Still a long ways to go for those Dragons. The system may underrated their team 3.13 ERA. Speaking of underrated, the system sure doesn't like Charlotte. Ranking them 29 at the start of the season and only bumping them 5 spots to #24. Not even 22 wins can give them the respect they deserve in the system. Go get 'em Centurions!

Hall Recap

Eli Cash - contributing reporter

Hall of Fame Voting Recap

Season 47 Hall of Fame voting without a new member being elected. Let's take a look at those votes and who once again are hopefuls for next year.  Once nominated, a players is eligible for 5 seasons. We'll start to track the progress each player makes over those years to see if they get any closer. Unfortunately I haven't been around enough, blame Canada, to track anything past Season 46. As it currently stands, a player needs 17 of the 32 owners to vote them in; or in the math world they might say 1 more than half. 

Raul Galvez 10 first year votes, and rightfully so; he scores last year's Hall of Famer Ahmed Ratliff. A 203 Monitor score puts him in the George Brett, Mike Piazza, and Vlad Guerrero range. It also ranks him above 8 other Cobbfather Hall of Famers. 6x All Star, 2x MVP, and 2x World Series Rings at Centerfield. 13 seasons with 30+ HR, driving in 100+ RBI, and hitting over 1,000 extra base hits in 12 seasons. Only 3 HoFers have more seasons with 100+ RBI, Jarrod Griffiths | Willie Cerda | Albert Cruz. Three of our top hitting Hall of Famers. For the chicks who digs the long ball, he was just 2 home runs shy of 600 for his career and drove in an amazing 1692 RBIs. He also hit the 2500 hit plateau. Surely within the next 4 seasons, he'll get the additional 7 votes needed for his induction into the Hall. 

He's followed shortly by Wiki Unamuno, also in his first year and collects 6 votes. Had he extended his career by another 2-3 years he'd likely be up there with Galvez. Just 59 hits shy of the 2500 hit plateau with Galvez but also played 4 less seasons. Trails only Johnny Sherman  and Andres Candelaria in Doubles and both Brutus Henry and Dennis Gulan in Stolen Bases compared to all Hall of Famers and boosts an 81% success rate at swiping bases; someone call the Po-Po! Averaged more runs per season than any current Hall of Famer. Getting on his base was his thing, leading with a .308 career batting average with a .376 career OBP which would rank him 5th among all HoFers. 6x All Star, 1x World Series Rings. If he hangs in there, we should see his plaque in the Hall one day. 

The third highest position player to receive votes was Edinson Hernandez. Owns the second highest Monitor score among eligible players for the Hall. His scores ranks up there with Paul Molitor and Kirby Puckett of the MLB. Only Andres Candelaria hit more Doubles (number 2 All Time) and Dennis Gulan more Stolen Bases than all Hall of Famers. #5 All Time in Triples. Hernandez averaged more hits a season than every current player in the Hall. If he only had played another 3-4 seasons, he'd definitely be at least top 5 all time in Hits, if not #2 trailing only stud Johnny Sherman. One of the few players to walk less than he struck out. 7x All Star, 1x MVP, 1x RotY, 2x World Series Rings in RF, surpassed the 400 HR mark and 2500 hit plateau. He hit more than 35 Doubles in 14 seasons, with 3 times hitting more than 45. Only fellow HoF eligible Wiki Unamuno hit more out of all players currently in the Hall. The numbers are there and I hope he gets it. If an owner or GM wanted someone hitting at the top of their lineup, this was the guy they want for every season he played. 

A few quick notes on those players picking up 4 or less votes. Ernie McEnerney drops 2 votes, down to 4. A long career served him as he reached over 2800 hits but hit a career .268 and struck out 80% more times than he walked. He just reached the 500 HR mark. He'd have Cash's vote but there are so many other names that I feel are more deserving. I'm not sure when his clock started, but his eligibility could be coming to an end soon. Dorssys Tatis holds tight at 4, likely due to strong support in Colorado Springs and the rowdy Dizzy Leonard crowd. I'll give them one thing, they are strong willed group, that's for sure. Struck out as much as he walked, though he did top 2500 Hits and was climbing towards 600 HRs (hit 565). But after 18 years, I'd hope he has those numbers. Averaged 30 HRs a season, but only 77 runs and 90 RBI. Is the proud owner of a RotY award, but that is the only piece on his trophy case. Haywood Swann saw a HUGE drop off, going from 10 down to 3 votes. He misses most every high mark for Hits, HR, XBHs, and SBs. The one big thing he had going for him was his ability to walk. Maybe if he starts now, he'll be able to walk as a visitor into the Hall of Fame. Don Sparks drops from 5 to 2 votes, while his Monitor score of 154 is pretty good, his Test scores drops down to barely debatable for the Hall. He did cross the 2500 Hit mark and 500 HRs over his 16 year career. 3x MVP, 2x All Star - must have been a hell of a second half if he didn't make the All-Star game but still brought home the season MVP award. 1x RotY, 2x Gold Glove, and 2x World Series Rings. If a player doesn't have more than 10x seasons with 100+ Runs, you'd like to see that player have 10x seasons with 100+ RBIs and Sparks has neither. Benny Franco in his first year attempts to the be the first Catcher in the Cobbfather Hall. Considering his position, he should be a sure fire HoFer by his Test Score. 2300+ Hits, 450+ HRs, 1500+ RBI, 1200+ R with a .297 career average and .388 career OBP. 7x All Star with 1x World Series Rings. Unfortunately midway through his career he was moved off Catcher to DH; that likely hurt his Monitor Score a bit as it helps weight value at the different positions. In comparison to All Time batting average champ and full time Catcher, Al Samuel; Franco misses the mark big time. Samuel had a 194 Monitor Score compared to Franco's 95, but had a Test score of 68 compared to Franco's 71. Wandy Guillen and Rubby Javier each saw a decrease down to 1 vote each. Of the two, Wandy is the better player who made a good front of the order hitter, but doesn't compare well to Hernandez and Unamuno. Ching-Lung Suzuki gains a vote on his first season on the ballot, but everything except him reaching the 2500 Hits says he falls short even for a Shortstop. He is one of the best defensive players we've seen on the ballot, but he'll need more than 4 Gold Gloves to gain entry. Finally we have Alving Palmeiro dropping a vote down to a single one. His Monitor score has been the worst of any player I've looked at it. Middle of the road hitter that is a 5x All Star and 4x Gold Glove winner playing most of his games at the hot corner. His career numbers miss average 150 Hits, 20 HR, 25 SB, 85R, and 70 RBIs a season. 

Armando Merced exits with what he entered with, 11 votes. He is the closest player on the ballot to the Hall. Credited with 3x as many strikes out as walks. 7 seasons with 14+ wins and better than a .700 winning percentage. 7x All Star, surpassed 250 Wins (270), and 3k Strikeouts. His Monitor Score bests 9 other current HoFers, 3x 20+ Win seasons and 6x 200+ Strikeout seasons. He tops Edgar Cortez in nearly every category!

Midre Tavarez picked up a couple of votes as well, nearing the double digit mark. Tavarez has Merced beat in Wins by 3 and Complete Games but lags behind ever so slightly in most other categories. He'll definitely be watching to see if Merced gets in, as it should give him hope to be in as well. Seriously, they are eerily similar; Tavarez with 5 seasons of 14+ Wins better than .700, 3x 20+ Win seasons, 1 less All Star, 1 less seasons below 3.00 ERA, lower career OBP by .001; higher career ERA by .001.

Dizzy Leonard holds tight with 3 votes, and I believe he's entering his last season on the ballot. The always high Colorado Springs voters are holding strong and determined to get him in. Braeden Abercrombie on the other hand dropped 5 votes and now appears to be a long shot, if his eligibility hasn't already passed. He owns a fantastic 3.2 K/BB, but only 1 20+ Win season, did however end up with 8 200+ Strikeout seasons and a career 3.08 ERA to go along with his 1x Cy Young, 6x All Star, 2x Gold Glove. Our new comer Lynn Mortensen has the worst Monitor score among all players eligible that we've looked at over the years. He barely made 200 Wins, has a career ERA just shy of 4.00, one of the highest SLG% among eligible pitchers, but hey he did win RotY once. Go Mortensen! I wonder if his mom gets a HoF vote? Lorenzo Gonalez is a surprise case. He's on the border in the debatable area but didn't receive a single vote, sure he surpassed 200 Wins and only took 88 Ls over nearly 2800 innings; which places him second among all HoFers in Winning Percantage behind only Barry Carew. Ryan Fisher on the other hand, while close to Dizzy in stats definitely doesn't cut the requirements on the Monitor Score. Good to point out he did best Dizzy on the Test Score.  

Al Balentien drops 3 votes as Owners were likely voting elsewhere this year. In comparison, All Time Saves leader and current Boston Massacre closer, has a 180 Monitor Score and 241 Cash Score. Balentien's Monitor score has him above 12 other current Hall of Famers and is #3 All Time on the Saves list. Perhaps this writer undervalued him in his previous looks. His Cash Score took a hit in the last 2 seasons he played for Scranton and Seattle; totaling less than 30 IPs combined between the two. Ignore those two seasons and he's up at 243. Noting the first nine seasons of his career he was a middle man and not the closer. 8x All Stair, 5x Fireman of the Year, and 1x World Series Ring. I'm not sure how many seasons he has left on the ballot, but I'll be looking at his name more closely next year. 

Yeico Miranda had a good increase, going from 2 votes in Season 46 to 6 votes this season, his career ratios across the board are better than Balentien, but similar to Al; he started our of his first 6 seasons as a Set-up man and not the closer role. Often times appearing in 65-70 games and throwing 125+ innings. of below 2.00 ERA ball. He surpassed 300 saves but wasn't able to reach the 400 mark, perhaps that holds him back in the voter's eye. 11x All Star, 1x RotY, 2x FotY, and 1x World Series Rings. In Season 39 he won his first Fireman of the Year (AL) the same year Al Balentien won his last FotY (NL). 

Artie Stone is our new comer and while his Monitor Scores seems a bit light, he's made up for it in his Cash Score receiving 2 votes this season. 455 career saves, which likely puts him in the top 10 for that category, but rarely (4 times) did he drop a sub 3.00 ERA or a sub 1.20 WHIP. His BB/9 would be the highest mark among current Hall of Famers. It was rare for him to top 25 saves a season, but that likely has more to do with his manager and role than actual talent. 6x All Star but no trophies for his mantle at home. 

Until next year!

Got 5 on it!

  Jessica Fletcher - contributing reporter

With the season started, let's take a quick look at payroll. Nearly $310M still out there in cap space. That's A LOT of Tim Hortons and Maple Syrup for the Canucks! Helena is looking in a good spot for a late season acquisition at the trade deadline, if not sooner. Wonder if any of our rebuilding teams have anything to offer, maybe some bullpen help judging by the recent rankings. 

S47 Initial Power Rankings

 Richard Castle - contributing reporter

Initial Season 47 Power Rankings

Last season we saw Helena, Oklahoma City, and Colorado Springs end the season as our top 3, in that order. Who made the best moves this offseason, who lost the least amount of talent, who is geared up for a Championship run? Could this be Florida's year? Okay, maybe that's a little too far. But we do have a new #1. Let's get straight to it:

After winning the World Series, Helena falls to #9 and looks to be the underdog for a repeat. The biggest climber is Vancouver, improving by 12 positions. Second is Anaheim moving up 11. Biggest faller is Cincinnati falling 9 positions. 

WINNING!

 Jack Torrance - contributing reporter

Franchise stats. It's not just the current owner but all the owners that came before them...well except for Boston and Houston; it's just them. 

Most wins: Houston Space Cowboys

Least wins: Scranton Hammers

Most Division titles: Houston Space Cowboys - 22

Worst Record with Division Title: San Fe Surf Riders VIII - Season 43 - 77-85

Best Record to not win Division Title: Boston Massacre - Season 25 - 111-51

Most Division Titles without World Series appearance: Trenton Reznors - 16

Most League Championships: Atlanta Expos - 11

Most consecutive League Championships: Dover Diamond Dogs (Pittsburgh) - 5 - Seasons 19-23

Most consecutive World Series Championships: Dover Diamond Dogs (Pittsburgh) - 3 - Seasons 21-23

Most World Series Championships: Houston Space Cowboys & Atlanta Expos - 5

Most wins without World Series Championship: Tucson Trappers - 3820 W

Moved the most: Trenton Reznors & Tampa Bay Deplorables - 14

Moved the least: Boston Massacre - 45 seasons and counting

The Fame Team

"In 2021 a crack sandlot baseball crew was excluded from the Hall of Fame for records they didn't commit.  These men promptly escaped from the maximum view of the public eye to the Cooperstown underground.  Today, still not wanted by the Hall of Fame they survive as autograph signers of fortune.  If you want their signature, and you have $40, and if you can find the flea market where they are at... maybe you can purchase a glossy of... The Fame-Team" 

Underneath the beat up painted wooden sign over the Quonset hut door which announced the entrance into 'Bill-Bob's Flea Market,' four men stood in some confusion eyeing the morass of tables beyond.  Filled with overpriced tiger print rugs, homemade jams and jellies, and more cheap jewelry than one might find at a Charming Charlies lay the destination table of their interest.  

"Dizzy, you told me we'd make some money here and raise awareness of our exclusion from the Hall of Fame.  But I don't think I could find even a used Captain and Tennille vinyl here for less than $30.  Who on earth is going to come to this place?" asked a nondescript man in a forgettable grey baseball cap with a red H for the logo.

"Don't you worry, this is the place.  I saw Pete Rose at one of these once, and he had a line three people deep!  I am sure that there will be an even bigger line for Stubby Shaw, top five all time in At Bats in Cobbfather."  The man grumbled and another voice behind him spoke up, low in tone and forceful in delivery. "I can't see my van from that table.  Nobody better mess with my van while we are doing this!  I took it to the chop shop and put in 12 subwoofers in the back and a portable DJ set, that stuff is worth more than the entire inventory of this junkyard!"

The man named Dizzy Leonard, in his Oklahoma drawl replied easily, "Now now Kendry Lunar, you put an alarm system on that right?  If you didn't let me know, I sell mobile homes and used cars back home, and we can install one for you at the right price.  But I know you are clutch and already thought of that, since you are #2 all time in two out RBIs."

The man named Dizzy was about to say something else when they all heard a crash somewhere deep within the Quonset hut market.  A high pitched voice cried out, "Nobody puts Rocco Pember in a straight jacket! Nobody!"

Dizzy spoke up, "Well boys, we better go handle that, looks like Rocco found the vintage horror booth.  He just hasn't been the same since he found out he had the worst all time groundball to flyball ratio in league history. Let's get that cleaned up before he ruins our autograph table before we even get it set up.  I paid $200 in security deposit for that space"

As the three men disappeared into the Quonset hut flea market, a young boy looked up, holding a used baseball bat from a pile at a booth staffed by a man who looked like he smoked too much in one year for three men.  He looked down at the name inscribed on the bat, and smiled with awe, and looked up at his father.  "Can we buy it please, Dad?" he asked longingly, "It's only $54.99, and it's Quinton Allen signature edition, the career leader in Grounded into Double Plays!"  The father replied, "Sure.  Why not.  Maybe someday you can grow up and own that record yourself."  The boy smiled, happy that his father recognized greatness when he saw it.  

Location Location Location

 Richard Castle - contributing reporter

Rumors has it, Cobbfather executives are still debating a major realignment. In it, they would eliminate the AL and NL, playing in one league with every team adopting the DH. Playoffs would be seeded similar to March Madness. The plan might be rejected year after year, but that doesn't stop them from talking about it. 
Central: Austin, Houston, Oklahoma City, Jackson
East: Dover, Washington DC, Charlotte, Columbus
Midwest: Milwaukee, Iowa City, Chicago, Cincinnati
North: Scranton, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
Northwest: Vancouver, Santa Fe, Helena, Colorado Springs
Northeast: Augusta, New York, Boston, Trenton
Southeast: Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Florida, San Juan
Southwest: Honolulu, Anaheim, Arizona, Tucson

By the way, imagine a 7 game series between Honolulu and San Juan; that's a 15.5 plane ride and 5,878 miles. 

Park Factors

A new owners first big decision is where to play half of their games, and what kind of ballpark they want. With a wide range going from Colorado, pure hitter friendly, to Tacoma, pure pitcher friendly; and it's a big first decision. One thing some owners take into account are the other stadiums in their division. Let's take a quick look:

Best HR division: AL North

Top Hitters division: NL South

Pitchers dream division: NL West, they own the tiebreaker in park factor against AL East due to the better at limiting home runs. 

Divisional Park Factors (listed hitter to pitcher friendly)

1. 1.106 NL South 
2. 1.047 AL West
3. 1.016 AL North
4. 1.013 NL East
5. 1.002 NL North - The Switzerland of Cobbfather divisions. 
6. 0.984 AL South
7. 0.971 AL East
8. 0.971 NL West

Coaches R Us

 Richard Castle - contributing reporter

"I'm proud of the way you practiced today", "Whether He Plays or Not Will Be a Game Time Decision", & "I'm Proud of the Fact We Kept Fighting out There"? What is things you overpay a coach to say? Let's just straight in by creating tiers of our ML coaching staffs. 

Joe McCarthy tier - This is the best of the best. They may not have the talent on their ML rosters, but their owner sure hopes they can squeak a few extras wins by retaining a great coaching staff. 

• Philadelphia Harpers
• Houston Space Cowboys

Tony LaRussa tier

• Atlanta Expos
• Vancouver Canucks
• Florida Springbreakers
• Cincinnati Dragons

Joe Torre tier

• Jackson Flaxon-Waxon
• Buffalo Bisons
• Colorado Springs From My Loins
• Boston Massacre
• Columbus Corgis
• Milwaukee Metronomes
• Scranton Hammers
• Augusta Squeeze
• Iowa City Derecho Riders
• Arizona Armadillos
• Anaheim west coast bombers

Bobby Cox tier

• Tucson Tappers
• Pittsburgh Yinzers
• Washington DC Nationals
• San Juan Fudds
• Dover Hazmats
• Trenton Reznors
• Oklahoma City Barons

Joe Maddon tier

• Helena Hot Dogs
• Tampa Bay Deplorables
• Honolulu 'Apapnes
• Chicago Gunslingers

AJ Hinch tier - So much for teaching an old dog new tricks. The rosters of these teams likely have more coaching experience than the coaches themselves. 

• Charlotte Centurions
• Santa Fe Surf Riders
• New York Empire

Looking Franchise wide, here are the top 5 hitting, pitching, and bench coach staffs. A lot of the bottom tier ML franchise have some great coaching staffs in their minor league system in hopes to coach up those prospects and get them ML ready. Without further ado:

Top 5 Hitting Coaching Staff (includes minor leagues)

1. Cincinnati Dragons
2. Anaheim west coast bombers
3. Houston Space Cowboys
4. Atlanta Expos
5. Florida Springbreakers

Top 5 Pitching Coaching Staff (includes minor leagues)

1. Philadelphia Harpers
2. Columbus Corgis
3. Florida Springbreakers
4. Atlanta Expos
5. Augusta Squeeze

Top 5 Bench Coaching Staff (includes minor leagues)

1. Colorado Springs From My Loins
2. Cincinnati Dragons
3. Augusta Squeeze
4. Florida Springbreakers
5. San Juan Fudds

$wagger

 Jessica Fletcher - contributing reporter

End of the Free Agent season, but that doesn't mean the spending is over. 

Top 5 recent spenders (since last update)

1. New York Empire - $49.4M
2. Oklahoma City Barons - $34.9M
3. Pittsburgh Yinzers - $31.4M
4. Anaheim west coast bombers - $29.3M
5. Scranton Hammers - $24.5M

Top 5 Offseason spenders overall

1. New York Empire - $59.8M
2. Anaheim west coast bombers - $56M
3. Oklahoma City Barons - $48.9M
4. Scranton Hammers - $48.7M
5. Helena Hot Dogs - $45.6M

Top 5 budgets remaining

1. Florida Springbreakers - $46.1M
2. Washington DC Nationals - $43.2M
3. Philadelphia Harpers - $34.5M
4. Honolulu 'Apapanes - $31.4M
5. Houston Space Cowboys - $23.5M

I know it's noted on everyone's office today, but here are the current standings of payroll. 

On the move!

 Jessica Fletcher - contributing reporter

Let's take a look at the original top 10 position players and top 10 pitchers, who has moved teams and who met or exceeded their original demands. 

Of the top 10, so far only the top 5 have signed. It will be interested to see where Lee Schlitter is when this contract expires at the age of 38. Luckily the New York owner has the foresight to front load the contract. Schlitter is also the only one to resign with their original team at this point, we'll see where the remaining 5 sign in the coming days. 

The young shortstop, Carmen Buller definitely pulled in a fine haul; signing the 5 years he wanted but nearly $30M more than his agent was asking for. If Carmen asks me, it's time for a new agent who values him a little more. 

Appears Chul Takada might be slowed by that Type A tag. Word has it, that he's dropped his demands down to 2/$4.7M. Surely he finds a home at that asking price. As have all the guys listed below him. Slow moving for position players at the moment. 

Pitchers appear to have some better luck or better agents with 9 of the top 10 players receiving contracts already. Every single one of them, outside of Wilfredo Correa, bested their original demands as well. Yovani Parraz was able to snag a $100M+ deal from Pittsburgh. Sherman Berkman's deal is no joke either, especially for a 35 year old. Even 37 year old Joe Holmes was able to snag another year and an additional $3M a year from his original demands out of the Dover Hazmats. OKC has to be feeling great about their two signings, bringing back Albert Robbins at his demand, and then stealing Eric Hampton from the defending World Champions, Helena Hot Dogs. allenharwell can't be to thrilled with that news! Your biggest move of the off-season, at least by distance has to be Yuudai Park going 2,900 miles from Scranton to Vancouver. 

All-in-all, it's been a busy free agent off-season and there are plenty of names still out there. Excited to see how the landscape changes before the season starts.

Curious case of Wiki Unamuno

 Eli Cash - contributing reporter

It's about that time again, voting for the Cobbfather Hall of Fame. We recently covered the players who received votes last year while releasing the three systems to review a players worthiness of the Hall. As a remind, here are the scores that are considered clinches to make the Hall. 

• The Monitor
• 130+ virtual clinch
• 100-129 debatable
• The Test - does not rate RPs
• 60+ virtual clinch
• 50-59 debatable
• The Cash System
• Position Players
• 500+ virtual clinch
• 430-499 debatable
• Starters
• 420+ virtual clinch
• 390-419 debatable
• Relievers
• 250+ virtual clinch
• 200-249 debatable

In last year's article, Edinson Hernandez, Armando Merced, and Yeico Miranda were the only players to clinch in every system. But let's take another look at a player that is eligible this year who also clinches according to all three categories: 

Wiki Unamuno (RF)

6x All Star, 6x Silver Slugger, 1 World Series ring with the Montgomery Mayhem, under the ownership of jake72.  Playing most of his games (1577) games in right field, and averaged 26 HR | 36 SB | 118 R | 99 RBI over his 13 year career. That's good for 542 Cash points a season, clearing above the 500 for position players. In his prime he routinely dropped 30 home runs, drove in 105 RBIs, scored 115 runs, stole 40 bases, while averaging .315. His monitor scores of 135 and test score of 63 just barely make the clinch requirements. He may not have the most home runs, but similar to Edinson Hernandez, he got on base and moved up runners. He also added speed, having stole at an 83% success rate, second highest amongst Hall of Famers with over 450 stolen bases. 

Let's take a look at another that might get passed over during nominations:

Julio Contreras (C)

Catchers often get passed over because they are too busy doing their job behind the plate to produce at the plate. But from the retired catchers we've reviewed, Julio Contreras is the best. His monitor and test score fall just inside the debatable score with his Cash points missing by a fair margin. 5x All Star and caught for 2 World Series rings; one of which was teaming up with Wiki Unamuno in Montgomery. He sports a cool .306 lifetime batting average but never had more than 450 at bats a season, often times sitting between 380-400 due to spending much of his time behind the plate and need a little more rest. It would be a different story if he were great defensively, but Contreras only had 4 plus plays behind the play, a fielding percentage of .993, only caught 26% of the stolen base attempts, and had a CERA of 4.04. Those 12,300 innings behind the plate add up! Our scoring systems do not have a lot of catchers to compare at this time, but I think he misses the Hall; if he's even nominated.  

Cash's votes for S47 Hall of Fame

• Edinson Hernandez (RF)
• Armando Merced (SP)
• Yeico Miranda (RP)
• Haywood Swan (LF)
• Wiki Unamuno (RF)

Update scoring system charts. Red indicates new player reviewed by system. Randall Washington was requested to be included, so you will see where he falls below. 

Bills, Bills, Bills

Jessica Fletcher - contributing reporter

It's only been a few days, but let's check in on those payrolls and budgets. We are nearing the last day of Arbitration so we still expect a few changes before moving into Free Agency. Our top 5 big spenders are:

• Honolulu 'Apapanes - $45M
• Columbus Corgis - $39.1M
• Augusta Squeeze - $38M
• Chicago Gunslingers - $35.3M
• Helena Hot Dogs - $34.8M

Our bottom 5 spenders include:

• Philadelphia Harpers - $-0.5M (saved a half million, must be investing mutual funds)
• Charlotte Centurions - $3.8M
• Pittsburgh Yinzers - $5.9M
• Santa Fe Surf Riders VIII - $6.5M
• Florida Springbreakers - $8.8M

Here's a look at the payrolls late-arbitration, listed by current payroll. Includes budget space remaining and how much they've spent on resigning free agents / arbitration / slush funds / ponzi schemes.